Iconic Austin blues venue Antone’s Nightclub has announced a lease extension to remain at its current location, 305 E. 5th St., for another 50 years. The club has also secured a $1.3 million investment from Rally Austin — a real estate nonprofit that partners with the city through the Austin Cultural Trust program — to create the “Antone’s World Famous Museum of the Blues.”
“Securing a home for ‘Austin’s Home of the Blues’ for the next 50 years is a grand and poetic victory to the impassioned pursuit that Clifford Antone started 50 years ago,” Antone’s co-owner Will Bridges said in a news release. “And to bolster our presence and impact with the education and preservation focus of the blues museum deeply enriches and realizes the full vision of our mission.”
The lease extension positions Antone’s to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2075. It also marks the beginning of a permanent installation of historical artifacts on the venue’s second floor, slated to open in 2027. The new museum will showcase Austin’s blues heritage and offer educational and community programming, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the city’s Rally for Live Music Fund.
“For 50 years, Antone’s has stood at the heart of Austin’s identity as the Live Music Capital of the World, a place where legends are born and our city’s creative soul thrives,” Rally Austin President and CEO Theresa Alvarez said in a news release. “Thanks to the city of Austin for creating the Iconic Venue Fund that fuels Rally’s Cultural Trust, which allows us to execute creative solutions for Austin’s artistic community!”
Established in December 2020, the city’s Iconic Venue Fund provides long-term financial support for preserving Austin’s cultural music hubs and businesses. Administered by Rally Austin through the Austin Cultural Trust, the fund is fueled by hotel occupancy taxes and money from a 2018 bond package that allocated $12 million toward creative facilities. The first music venue to receive support from the fund was Hole in the Wall on Guadalupe Street.
“We’re not just preserving a venue; we are securing an icon and supporting the creative ecosystem around several venues, theaters and community centers,” Alvarez said.
Antone’s is also launching the “Antone’s Forever Fund,” an initiative through the Clifford Antone Foundation to sustain the brand’s legacy over the next five decades and support future cultural and community projects. Founding donors will be commemorated on a cast-bronze wall inside the forthcoming museum. Donations can be made at donorbox.org.
Antone’s marked its 50th anniversary this year with an ambitious celebration that included a curated series of live shows at the venue, a landmark edition of Austin Blues Festival at Waterloo Park and a featured slot at the Blues on the Green summer concert series. The club also sent its “Antone’s Allstars” on the road for special performances in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.
They filmed an “Austin City Limits” episode for PBS that aired Nov. 8 and released “Antone’s 50th Allstars: 50 Years of the Blues,” a limited-edition box set featuring three full-length albums, a hardcover photo book with never-before-seen images and a history of the club written by Joe Nick Patoski.